Location: Manchester
Lifespan: 1972-1993
Known locally as Fort Ardwick, Coverdale Crescent was system-built using a similar method to the one that produced the ill-fated Ronan Point in Newham. Just two years after its completion, Fort Ardwick was already attracting ire from its inhabitants: local MP Gerald Kaufman reported to Parliament in 1974 that, during a conversation with residents, one of them had proclaimed that “if Labour wins the election, it ought to do two things: abolish the House of Lords, and demolish Fort Ardwick.” By the mid-1980s Fort Ardwick’s skin of interlocking, pre-cast concrete panels was failing to keep water out, and the estate was demolished in the early 1990s along with Fort Beswick, built in a similar style a mile north. Coverdale Crescent was built when plans were still in place to extend the M67 motorway into Manchester city centre: the wide grass verge between the estate and the Hyde Road was left empty for this purpose, and is still a green space today despite the fact that plans for the motorway have long since been shelved.
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